Dear Trinity Community:
Last year, we celebrated 500 years of the Lutheran Reformation. It was an especially meaningful time of
remembrance but also a time to be re-charged to continue the call to be a disciple of Jesus. You may remember the spiritually moving and beautiful hymn festival that Trinity helped coordinate, which nearly 3,500 people attended at the
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The service was recorded via DVD and I have since heard that it has been seen around the United States and even the world. Praise God “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
So now what? How do we celebrate the 501st anniversary of the Reformation? What is worth reforming?
These are important questions to consider.
I am reminded that the Reformation was not a single event in history more than 500 years ago but a call to be re-formed in the image of God. The ideas that came out of the Reformation are still important so many years later. As a church, we continue to focus on forgiveness and reconciliation of sin, while sharing the Gospel message to the ends of the earth.
Perhaps the last line of Rosamond E. Herklots’ famous hymn “Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive” (LSB 843) helps us answer some of these questions:
Lord, cleanse the depths within our souls,
and bid resentment cease;
then, bound to all in bonds of love,
our lives will spread your peace.
I invite you to our Reformation celebration at Trinity on October 27-28. Remember to wear red to help mark this important day in the life of the church.
God of grace, although we cannot fathom the magnitude of your forgiveness, fill us with the desire to show our gratitude for your mercy in all we do. Amen.
Ben A. Spalding
Director of Music and the Arts
